Tulare County Biographies
Henry G. Traeger
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
For more than forty years Henry G. Traeger, community builder, retired
merchant, former town trustee and one of the best known men in this section of
California, has been a resident of Porterville and he thus has been a witness to
and a participant in the development of that flourishing trade center almost
from the time of organized settlement there, for when he arrived in Tulare
county the village of Porterville was just getting a fair start in the race
toward community development, and it is undoubted that the efforts he presently
was able to put forth in development work thereabout had much to do with the
general promotion of the commercial and general industrial activities of the
place. Now practically retired from the active direction of the interests which
long engaged his attention, Mr. Traeger is in a position to enjoy the well
earned rewards of his useful endeavors and is thus approaching the calm evening
time of his life with the happy consciousness that not all his labor has been
lost, for in the upbuilding of the city of Porterville there are many permanent
evidences of the part he has taken in that substantial growth. Due to his many
years of active participation in local affairs, there are few persons in this
valley who are better informed on the history and traditions of the locality
than is Mr. Traeger, and his interest in local history is a never waning one. As
a member of the advisory board concerned in the compilation of this present
History of Tulare County he has rendered a further acceptable service to the
community and his kindly and efficient services in that behalf are hereby
gratefully acknowledged by the publishers of this work.
Henry G. Traeger is a native of the old Buckeye state but has been a
resident of California since the days of his young manhood and his interests
therefore for many years have centered in this state. He was born on a farm in
the immediate vicinity of the city of Kenton, the county seat of the county of
Hardin, in one of the most interesting and picturesque sections of the state of
Ohio, April 10, 1859, and remained on the
farm until he was sixteen years of age, when, along in the middle '70s, he was
caught by the lure of the west and left Ohio, facing toward what seemed to him a
fairer and more attractive horizon, and presently found himself in California, a
land of promise that during that period was offering much to young men from the
east. After some adventuring in various sections of the state Mr. Traeger, in
1884, found himself in the Porterville settlement in Tulare county. There had
been a death in the settlement the day before and the first job he struck
following his arrival was that of grave-digger, it apparently being thought
proper to pass this usually unwelcome task on to the stranger. He then got a job
herding hogs in the mountains, another unwelcome task. It was not long until he
had enough of that sort of a job to last a lifetime and he took to the
woodchoppers camps and was for some time engaged in this strenuous form of
exercise, becoming an expert woodsman. He then got a job as a clerk in the
general merchandise store of Wilko Mintz in Porterville, and was for fourteen
years thereafter connected with that old mercantile establishment, during that
time becoming acquainted with practically everyone in the county. Gold questing
then attracted him for awhile and for a year he was engaged in mining in the
White river district. With the profits derived from this adventure Mr. Treager
opened a men's furnishing goods store in Porterville and was for some time thus
engaged in business. He also acted for awhile as grain buyer for Eppinger &
Company and later became engaged in the furniture business.
As his affairs prospered Mr. Traeger expanded his operations and became
a community builder in earnest, one of the monuments to his enterprise being the
attractive and substantial commercial block he erected on Main street. He also
laid out and put on the market a tract of two and a half acres of town lots
known as Traeger's Subdivision to the city of Porterville and in that venture
profited fairly well and at the same time afforded an outlet for city expansion
that gave to the town one of its most attractive residential districts. For some
time also he interested himself in orange growing, and in other ways kept
himself busy, for there was no place in his active life for idle moments in
those days. He had other mercantile interests in addition to those maintained in
Porterville and was for years the president of the company store at Rochdale.
Diligent in his own business, Mr. Treager found time to give a good citizen's
attention to general civic affairs and for four years served as a member of the
board of trustees of the city, during which term of service he helped to put
through the paving of Mill, Main and Putnam streets. He also rendered public
service for some time as deputy county assessor and in other ways has done what
his hand has found to do in the way of promoting the general public interest.
On September 5, 1891, in Porterville, Henry G. Traeger was united in
marriage to Mrs. Mary Jane (Schmidt) Myers, who died in 1915. To that union were
born two sons : Henry A. and Wilko J. Traeger, both of whom now are living in
Fresno. By her former marriage the late Mrs. Traeger was the mother of two
daughters, Mrs. Will Hall and Mrs. Minnie Leyva, who are now living in Los
Angeles. Mr. Traeger is a Royal Arch Mason and has for years taken an earnest
interest in local Masonic affairs. In politics he is a republican. He is one of
the veteran members of the Tule River Fishing and Hunting Club, an organization
of local sportsmen which in 1891 built a club house on Tule river, and in his
later years he has found his chief diversion in the activities of that club, one
of the most experienced and ardent disciples of Izaak Walton hereabout.
Source: History of Tulare County and Kings County, California � Kathleen
Edwards Small & J. Larry Smith, Vol. II, Chicago, The S. J. Clarke Publishing
Company, 1926., pp. 31-33